Islamabad, April 10:

Clearing the air after weeks of speculation, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that no political deal was in the offing between him and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf sought to end days of rumour-mongering that hinted at his wanting to dump Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as part of the deal, blaming him, among other things, for allegedly mismanaging the crisis over suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

Aziz, too, broke his silence yesterday to say that not only was there no deal with Bhutto but that it was unlikely that she would come home and face detention for a number of corruption cases pending against her.

According to media reports, any Musharraf-Bhutto deal is an anathema to Aziz and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid) that Musharraf has blessed.

Bhutto on her part asserted that she had been “in contact” with the Musharraf regime since 2002. But the parleys, through interlocutors, were “routine” and that there was no way she was going to strike a deal with the military ruler.

A “president in uniform” is unacceptable, she asserted yesterday in an interview with a private TV channel.

Bhutto reiterated her Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) commitment to democracy. She dismissed reports that the government had offered her to become the prime minister, adding that all such reports were nothing more than a “disinformation campaign”.

Analysts pointed to compulsions for both Musharraf and Bhutto against a deal, even as Western media and think tanks have said, apparently reflecting Western concerns and hopes, that such a deal would help the two fight off the Islamist parties and in the long run the religious militancy.

A statement from Musharraf’s office followed media reports and comments by his high profile Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid, who characterised the parleys as having entered the “semi finals”.

“A spokesman for the president has strongly refuted all speculations regarding change in the government and a deal with an opposition party,” the statement said.

In an interview with Geo television broadcast in Dubai, Bhutto said: “PPP will not accept anyone in uniform.” “Uniform and democracy cannot go together,” she added.